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HOME & FAMILY EMPLOYMENT AND HOME CARE IN THE EU - EUROPEAN WHITE PAPER A CIVIL SOCIETY INITIATIVE - EFFE
HOME & FAMILY EMPLOYMENT
 AND HOME CARE IN THE EU

  A CIVIL SOCIETY INITIATIVE

  EUROPEAN WHITE PAPER

              5
HOME & FAMILY EMPLOYMENT AND HOME CARE IN THE EU - EUROPEAN WHITE PAPER A CIVIL SOCIETY INITIATIVE - EFFE
HOME & FAMILY EMPLOYMENT
 AND HOME CARE IN THE EU

  EUROPEAN WHITE PAPER

                  Contact:
      Aude Boisseuil, General Delegate
            +33 (0) 626 082 166
      aude.boisseuil@effe-homecare.eu

                     6
HOME & FAMILY EMPLOYMENT AND HOME CARE IN THE EU - EUROPEAN WHITE PAPER A CIVIL SOCIETY INITIATIVE - EFFE
INTRODUCTION    4

       PART 1   6    Home employment in Europe: adapted responses
                     to the needs of citizen and to the stakes
                     of the European public policies

                7    1 | Work-life balance and participation of women to the labour
                          market
                8    2 | Active ageing and caring for persons in situations of dependency
                9    3 | Encourage systems to support declared work
                10   4 | Social value and professionalisation of home employment
                11   5 | Home employment in Europe, a vehicle for the inclusion
                          of migrants

      PART 2    12   Recognition and visibility of the home employment
                     sector at European level

                13   1 | Provide a statistical scope to the home employment sector
                          in order to ensure its development
                15   2 | Declare domestic jobs for a public policy in favour
                          of social rights
                21   3 | Which status within the European public policies?

      PART 3    22   A necessary improvement of working conditions for
                     domestic workers at European level

                23   1 | Ensure the development of a social dialogue
                          at European level and in the Member States
                          for an efficient social protection of domestic workers
                28   2 | Ensure safe working conditions for domestic workers
                31   3 | Ensure professionalisation to guarantee quality jobs

      PART 4    34   Inclusion of the home employment sector in European
                     public policies

                35   1 | Family employment and home care: a social innovation model
                          for European regions to be taken into account in the future
                          Cohesion Policy
                38   2 | Formal and informal carers: essential inclusion in European
                          public policies
                40   3 | Meet the challenges of demographic ageing and work-life
                          balance, integrate migrant populations

 CONCLUSION     44

  PROPOSALS     45

CONTRIBUTORS    50

                                        3
INTRODUCTION

SUPPORT AND PROMOTE THE SECTOR OF HOME EMPLOYMENT
IN EUROPE: STAKES AND PROPOSALS

    Home employment refers to a              It is therefore a contractual work              Through these individual solu-
large range of activities which contri-   relationship between two private               tions, they provide a citizen response
bute to the well-being of families        individuals, without any trading or            to major collective issues: suppor-
and persons in their home: child-         profit-making objective.                       ting population’s ageing, supporting
care, caring for the elderly and the                                                     women participation to the labour
disabled, housekeeping, educational           T h e E u r o p e a n W h i t e Pa p e r   market and birth rates, creating
support, DIY, gardening, computer         intends to define, specify and pro-            declared jobs, developing social
assistance, etc. In the sector of home    mote the specific characteristics of           rights, recognising new skills for
employment between private indivi-        this employment model, which pro-              domestic workers and integrating
duals, a household finds an external      vides answers to various economic,             migrants decently.
response to its needs by employing a      social and societal stakes in Europe.
person at home, with the right skills     Home employment is mostly a res-
matched with these needs.                 ponse to private households’ needs.

                  Home employment sector and the relationship between families
                    and domestic workers share several specificities such as:

      A high number             A predominantly female                    Low skilled                    A high number
      of undeclared              population, often with                    workers;                  of workers with several
         workers;               immigrant background,                                                employers (working in
                                 coming either (within                                                several households);
                                    or outside from
                                 the European Union);

     A high number                  A high number                      Home/workplace                 The employer being
  of part-time workers;             of multi-skilled/                    inviolability;               a private individual
                                  multi-tasked workers;                                              and not a firm, finding
                                                                                                     a solution to its needs,
                                                                                                     without any trading or
                                                                                                     profit-making purpose.

                                                               4
INTRODUCTION

    The European White Paper makes             Italy, between 28% and 40% in the                  The European White Paper thus
proposals and focuses on the stakes            Netherlands[1]. Without changing the           aims at explaining how the home
of the home employment sector                  structure of the not-intermediated             employment sector in Europe can
between private individuals, as des-           relationship between the beneficiary           participate in the production of
cribed above, and not to be confused           and the employee, constituted by a             wealth in the Member States and
with other organised sectors, such             direct relationship without interme-           become a major contributor to
as the sector of social welfare ser-           diary, the simple switch of these              public policies resulting from the
vices or home-care service providers           activities into the formal economy             European Pillar of Social Rights. This
already identified.                            would significantly increase the               text, signed by the European insti-
                                               number of jobs of the sector, with             tutions and Heads of State and the
    EFFE’s aim is to ensure recogni-                                                          EU government on 17th November
                                               a social protection for workers who
tion of a European sector of home                                                             2017 and driven by the President
                                               had been deprived from it so far as
employment between private indi-                                                              of the European Commission, Jean-
                                               though they contribute to national
viduals, in which citizens define                                                             Claude Juncker, is non-binding. It
                                               wealth productions... This transfer
their needs and create their own                                                              also discloses a range of 20 com-
                                               may only be massively deployed
solutions, choosing their employees                                                           mon principles for genuine European
                                               thanks to digital employment plat-
freely, and creating jobs that gene-                                                          social convergence.
                                               forms: with online, simplified and
rate social rights without gaining
                                               adequate methods, families can
profit from them, as long as these                                                                Social Europe remains an evol-
                                               easily meet, recruit and declare their
jobs are declared. This sector offers                                                         ving concept. There is no common
                                               future employees.
virtuous solutions to meet social and                                                         social policy within the European
economic challenges: depending on                  In France, the share of unde-              Union. The fields of employment and
whether state investment in suppor-            clared work in the home employment             unemployment, the issues related to
ting these jobs exceeds or equals                                                             working conditions, vocational trai-
                                               sector is currently estimated at less
the social contributions paid by the                                                          ning, professional equality between
                                               than 20% by DARES (Directorate
household employers, declared work                                                            women and men, social protection
                                               for Research, Studies and Statistics,
becomes less expensive than unde-                                                             or social relationships in firms, do
                                               Labour Ministry) against 50% in 1996.
clared work, for a reduced or neutral                                                         not fall under the EU’s responsibility
                                               The model of good practices, carried
cost for public finances.                                                                     but rather under national policies.
                                               by social partners and public autho-
                                               rities for more than 20 years, now             The EU can only set minimum rules
    In Europe, the home employ-
                                               allows France to be at the top of the          that States are bound to respect (e.g.
ment sector statistics are quite poor,
                                               most advanced countries in terms               in terms of working time). For exa-
implying difficulties in measuring
                                               of securing the employment rela-               mple, the European Commission has
its importance and compromising
                                               tionship between private individuals           chosen to translate certain orienta-
its visibility. Several statistics are
                                               at home. Thus, by reducing the cost            tions of the Pillar into European law
incorrect or very incomplete, and the
                                                                                              by proposing several texts related to
share of informal employment is not            of employment through tax-credit
                                                                                              working time, employment contracts
identified.                                    mechanisms and decreased social
                                                                                              and access to social protection or
                                               contributions and by simplifying
    Precisely because a lot of domes-                                                         parental leave. The White Paper
                                               the procedures to declare a domes-
tic worker’s jobs are carried out in                                                          takes into account this coordination
                                               tic worker, public authorities have
the undeclared economy, the home                                                              between different levels to develop
                                               contributed both to transforming a
employment sector has a strong                                                                its proposals.
                                               large part of the undeclared activity
growth potential. A large part of              into declared jobs, and to democrati-
household services is still perfor-            sing access to the sector for all[2], by
med by undeclared workers: e.g.                giving citizens their share of initiative.
this share is estimated at more than
45% in Germany, more than 40% in

[1] European Commission, Developing personal and household services in the EU. A focus on house work activities, 2013.
[2] O
     ther examples: in Germany, the implementation of mini-jobs has simplified the declaration of household employees for private
    individuals and enabled them to benefit from a reduced tax rate. In Austria, a legalisation campaign has managed in two years
    to reduce undeclared work with the elderly by 80% (the campaign targeted the long-term care of the elderly).

                                                                    5
PART 1

HOME EMPLOYMENT IN
EUROPE: ADAPTED RESPONSES
TO THE NEEDS OF CITIZEN
AND TO THE STAKES
OF THE EUROPEAN PUBLIC
POLICIES

          Home employment is crossing many
    different social standpoints throughout Europe
   as it connects population ageing, better work-life
  balance or integration of migrants to one another.

                            6   6
HOME EMPLOYMENT IN EUROPE: ADAPTED RESPONSES TO THE NEEDS
                            OF CITIZEN AND TO THE STAKES OF THE EUROPEAN PUBLIC POLICIES

1 | WORK-LIFE BALANCE AND PARTICIPATION OF WOMEN
    TO THE LABOUR MARKET

    The access to consistent and                    In this context, over the last few               However, the rate of participa-
diversified childcare solutions enables         years, many reflections related to               tion of women in the labour market
parents to pursue their professional            the support to caregivers have lead              conceals several part-time jobs. Part-
activity when they have children.               to develop respite solutions. One exa-           time work is much more prevalent
A domestic and professional child-              mple is the outsourcing of some of               among women than among men:
care offer hence turns out to be an             the care and domestic tasks to a third           in 2016, in the EU28, 31.4% of 20 to
essential contribution to cover young           person. Home employment is a promi-              64-year-old women worked part time
children’s care needs, be it full-time          sing response to the global work-life            compared to 8.2% of men.
care for infants or only after-school           balance needs as it permits to let
care for older children. This enables           ”chosen domestic workers”[3], declared               Home employment is a factor
parents, especially mothers, to keep            and paid by the families, do a part of           enabling the development of the par-
their jobs while maintaining birth              the domestic and care tasks, which               ticipation of women in the labour
rates.                                          are still largely allocated to women.            market, as it allows to increase and
                                                These respite solutions allow to avoid           diversify childcare solutions and to
    In European societies, elderly per-         burn out situations for women and                reduce the burden of domestic tasks
sons are often cared for by women of            their partial or total withdrawal from           and care activities for children and
the family, especially by daughters.            the labour market. Statistics give a             the elderly. Indeed, Europe cannot
Whether they care for their elderly             perfect demonstration of these stakes.           do without the workforce of women
parents in their home (in Spain, for                                                             – those who take care of domestic
example, this practice is still wide-
spread), or take care of their elderly/
ill/dependent parents in their own
                                                    The employment rate of women
                                                between 20 and 64 years old in
                                                Europe increased from 51.2% in 1997
                                                                                                 activities at home, and those who
                                                                                                 employ them – and their participation
                                                                                                 in creating wealth for EU countries,
                                                                                                                                            1
homes, carers of the elderly are most           to 66.5% in 2017[4] and should continue          which must face an increasing demo-
often women. In some cases more                 to progress over the next few years.             graphic challenge. In certain countries,
than others, depending on the coun-             However, several gaps still remain               fertility rates are too low to ensure
tries, they also sometimes perform a            between the Member States. Regar-                the renewal of generations and to
professional activity and also carry            ding the participation of women in the           enable a sufficient contributors’ ratio
along motherly duties. All women                labour market, France is among the               to finance the pensions of an increa-
dealing with this situation, endorsing          European average (72.2%), but seve-              singly ageing population, whose life
together all these different social roles,      ral countries have rates of over 75%             expectancy has been significantly
and assuming the different tasks                e.g. Sweden (79.8%), Iceland (85.5%),            extended.
associated to them, could testify that          Norway (76.2%), Switzerland (77.4%)
this kind of experience may lead to             or Germany (75.2%). On the contrary,
risks of great fatigue or even burnout          Italy, Greece and to a lesser extent,
and ceasing their professional activity.        Spain, appear to be further behind
                                                with female participation rates of
                                                52.5%, 48% and 59.6% respectively.

[3] The use of the term “domestic workers” should be the subject of a semantic evolution, as it covers many more activities
    than simple housework.
[4] Eurostat data, European survey on workforces
                                                                       7
PART 1

2 | ACTIVE AGEING AND CARING FOR PERSONS IN SITUATIONS
    OF DEPENDENCY

    On 1st January 2017, people aged                 in France, the proportion of per-
65 years old and over represented                sons aged over 85 years living with
19.4%[5] of the European population,             their relatives has been divided by
with significant differences depen-              almost three, going from 31% to 11%,
ding on the countries (22% in Italy              between 1982 and 2011[6]. In Europe,
and in Greece, 21% in Germany, and               14.1% of households are made up of
13% in Ireland). Eurostat population             one person aged over 65 years living
projections show that the proportion             alone in 2016 [7] . Their proportion
of elderly persons will significantly            amounts to 18.7% in Lithuania and
increase: in 2035, they will represent           is higher than 15% in the other Baltic
almost one-quarter of the population             States, in Bulgaria, Denmark and Fin-
                                                                                                      European societies must stop
in Belgium (24%), Portugal (25%),                land. On the contrary, it is very low in
                                                                                                  relying entirely on women to take
Sweden (24%), and even more in                   Cyprus (7% of all households) and in
                                                                                                  care of the elderly. Families need to
Italy (29%) and in Germany (30%).                Spain, countries in which the elderly
                                                                                                  outsource at least part of this care
Furthermore, the relative proportion             are more often cared for within their
                                                                                                  by entrusting it to persons who are
of very elderly persons in the whole             families.
                                                                                                  not part of the household. It is essen-
population is progressing more qui-
                                                     Assistance and care for the                  tial to professionalise this sector so
ckly than any other segment of
                                                 elderly at home is one of the stakes             that domestic workers can provide a
the European Union’s population.
                                                 that all European Union countries                quality support and the appropriate
It is thus expected that the share
                                                 are bound to face for the years to               care, and prevent or slow down the
of elderly persons over 80 years
                                                 come. This is due both to the indi-              loss of autonomy when it is possible.
old in the EU28 will double or more
                                                 vidual choice of the persons in                  This relies as much as possible on
between 2015 and 2080, rising from
                                                 question (for example, in France, it             progresses in home automation to
5.4% to 12.7%.
                                                 is estimated that more than 80% of               relieve workers of hard and repetitive
   The European population is                    persons would rather stay in their               domestic tasks, and on developing
ageing and the elderly live more and             home until the end of their life [8]),           training and skills focused on unders-
more frequently alone, as living with            and to the fact that it is financially           tanding the specific requirements
relatives tends to be less frequent,             unsustainable to institutionalise the            of the elderly and on interperso-
due to the death of the spouse, the              care of very old people, whose num-              nal human relationships, which are
trend for less cohabitation between              ber continues to grow. It is therefore           sometimes cruelly lacking for the
generations and the increasing geo-              necessary to develop new methods                 most isolated persons, and that even
graphical distance between children              of assistance to grant decent ageing             the most sophisticated robots are not
and their parents. For example,                  to European elder populations.                   “yet” able to provide.

[5] Eurostat, Structure and ageing of the population, May 2018.
[6] L. Trabut, J. Gaymu, “Living alone or with relatives after 85 in France: huge differences depending on the departments”, Population &
    Sociétés, no.539, Ined, December 2016.
[7] “People in the EU: who are we and how do we live?”, Eurostat.
[8] Source: Report “Bien vieillir à domicile: accompagner les seniors”, Institut Montaigne, Paris, June 2015, on institutmontaigne.org

                                                                       8
HOME EMPLOYMENT IN EUROPE: ADAPTED RESPONSES TO THE NEEDS
                         OF CITIZEN AND TO THE STAKES OF THE EUROPEAN PUBLIC POLICIES

    The majority of this support is        countries. Several domestic wor-              To face the challenge of the
provided by the employees of the           kers directly employed by families        ageing in Europe, it is absolutely
European sector of home employ-            already deal with this assistance,        necessary to bring in public policies
ment, at least in the countries in         with or without public support, in a      to ensure the development of these
which assistance for dependant             legal context generating social rights    new employment models and these
persons is not exclusively provided        for the employees, or in an incom-        new jobs, and to professionalise
by public service providers or in a        plete and barely emerging legal           them.
situation of public service delega-        context that doesn’t allow to avoid
tion, like in some of Northern Europe      situations of domestic exploitation.

3 | ENCOURAGE SYSTEMS TO SUPPORT
    DECLARED WORK

    When families paying for assis-            The future of Europe is also lin-         In order to ensure that the decla-
tance from domestic workers                ked to skills and knowledge of the        ration of the activities performed in
declare the jobs created, the wor-         European citizens. They constitute        the home employment sector beco-
kers concerned become fully-entitled       a professional identity, which may

                                                                                                                              1
                                                                                     mes a reality in all Member States
employees in their country, which          be used, reinforced and completed,        where such activities are still too
is supposed to guarantee that they         through personalised career paths, in     often performed in the informal eco-
access to decent working conditions.       order to meet with the ever-changing      nomy, national public policies have
Moreover, declaring domestic jobs          requirements and skills needs.            to set up the regulatory context, as
should enable the payment by fami-                                                   a priority, along with systems for
lies of social contributions. Therefore,       Declaring domestic workers’           simplifying and encouraging such
the Member States can implement            jobs is therefore essential because it    declaration. This could free domestic
social welfare for the employees:          generates fundamental social rights                       CESU
                                                                                     workers’ jobs from informal work.
such as health insurance, pension          and the possibility to invest specific
and unemployment benefits.                 funds in the development and adap-            In other words, these public
                                           tation of the essential skills required   policies have to be adapted to
    These social contributions may         to ensure quality, especially to meet     employment between citizens, and
also support professionalization,          the challenges of educating very          take into account that families are
which may seem less fundamental at         young children and caring for the         not firms, and therefore are not the
first sight, but is absolutely essential   elderly at home.                          usual type of employers. Such poli-
for workers’ professional develop-                                                   cies will generate additional wealth,
ment and adaptation of their skills to                                               safe and protective jobs, solutions to
families’ requirements.                                                              the work-life balance and women’s
                                                                                     participation in the labour market
                                                                                     issues, and conditions for a balanced
                                                                                     care of the elderly at home.
              “ Only incentive, job declaration supportive,
                 home employment adapted policies (...)
                      will truly display efficiency. ”

                                                              9
PART 1

4 | SOCIAL VALUE AND PROFESSIONALISATION
    OF HOME EMPLOYMENT

    It is essential that these millions         Domestic workers’ jobs are deman-           Developing domestic workers’
of jobs are declared and made safe,         ding, and subject to high professional      skills is therefore the most definite
but also that domestic workers are          risks: toxicity of cleaning products,       way to ensure the development of
professionalised. The economic and          musculoskeletal disorders due to            real jobs with high human added
social value of these jobs currently        the daily carrying of children or           value, and the best way to make
seems obvious, but workers’ pro-            moving dependent elderly persons,           societies and families aware that
fessional skills have to be developed       household chores, along with the            these jobs deserve wages, social
to ensure quality services for the          emotional commitment which is               welfare and professional recognition.
households needing them. Families           necessary in many relationships of
wish to entrust their home, or their        care and assistance. In order to meet           Declaring domestic workers
children or elderly relatives, to trust     with the expectations of families           generates social contributions that
worthy persons, and the starting            and individuals, and also to learn to       automatically finance their pro-
point of this trust lies in the gua-        protect oneself and prevent occupa-         fessionalization, essential to the
ranteed skills of the workers.              tional illness or accidents, domestic       recognition of their jobs and to get
                                            workers have to develop professional        out the underground economy. It is
    Early childhood care is beco-           specific skills.                            this virtuous circle that Member States
ming an issue of social investment                                                      must endeavour to encourage.
and initial education of children. In           Professionalization is the first step
this context, developing domestic           towards recognizing the domestic
workers’ skills is a prerequisite for       workers sector. It guarantees higher
well-being and security. For the care       quality of service and/or more safety
of elderly, specific, technical and         in the results of the service provided
relational skills are required for pre-     and it is essential for specialisation
venting as much as possible, slowing        and qualification, which are factors
down, and then accompanying a               of progress.
loss of autonomy at home: making
a home safe, respecting the habits
and privacy of the person while
caring for him/her, stimulating and                     “ Professionalization is the necessary corollary
assisting the elderly persons without                        to the recognition of domestic workers.
doing the task for them, observing                       It guarantees higher quality of service and/or
and constantly adapting the support                   more safety in the results of the service provided.
to match the evolution in abilities, etc.
                                                      It is essential for specialisation and qualification,
                                                         which are factors of sector-based progress. ”

                                                               10
HOME EMPLOYMENT IN EUROPE: ADAPTED RESPONSES TO THE NEEDS
                        OF CITIZEN AND TO THE STAKES OF THE EUROPEAN PUBLIC POLICIES

5 | HOME EMPLOYMENT IN EUROPE, A VEHICLE FOR THE INCLUSION
    OF MIGRANTS

    Structuring the home employ-              The European Union should the-            Many migrants need to work
ment sector in Europe must lead to        refore continue to see the arrival of     in order to be able to get out of
meet massively with the living requi-     populations in situations of insecu-      insecure situations. The jobs asso-
rements of European households, at        rity in their own country and forced      ciated with home employment and
the various stages of their life cycle,   to flee.                                  household services rely on rela-
and with the employment and pro-                                                    tionship and technical skills and are
tection needs of the sector’s workers.        Although, in this context, the        accessible to persons with few or no
This necessary organisation is useful     White Paper does not aim at dea-          qualifications, or to persons whose
for the inclusion of migrants within      ling with the appropriateness and         qualifications acquired in their home
hosting Member States.                    legitimacy of the solutions to be         countries are still not recognised in
                                          implemented by Member States              the host country. The European sec-
     Migration has been a decisive        for welcoming these migrants,             tor of home employment may be a
characteristic of European history.       it contributes to considering the         vehicle for the inclusive integration
It is the result of inequalities and      ways of including and integrating         of migrants in the Member States
geopolitical, socioeconomic, demo-        these migrants, both with dignity         where permitted by the legislative
graphic and environmental changes.        and effectively. The workforce            context.
It is now acknowledged that the geo-      requirements for meeting with
political situation in various parts of   the challenges of accompanying                It may however only perform
the world and the current and future      an increasingly-ageing European           this role if the European public poli-
climate changes should have an
impact in terms of migratory move-
ments.
                                          population, along with the need for
                                          support at home for women wishing
                                          to join the labour market, are not cur-
                                                                                    cies are made, first of all, to organise
                                                                                    this sector by giving it the necessary
                                                                                    means, through its professionaliza-
                                                                                                                               1
                                          rently sufficiently covered, whereas      tion and especially its regularisation,
                                          they will continue to grow.               to avoid emphasizing the insecurity
                                                                                    of the migrant workers who might
                                                                                    join the sector.

                                                             11
PART 2

RECOGNITION AND
VISIBILITY OF THE HOME
EMPLOYMENT SECTOR
AT EUROPEAN LEVEL

     Highlighting the sector’s economic weight,
     social stakes and employment perspectives
   can only be achieved through a better statistical
          recognition of home employment.

                            12
RECOGNITION AND VISIBILITY OF THE HOME EMPLOYMENT
                                           SECTOR AT EUROPEAN LEVEL

1 | P
      ROVIDE A STATISTICAL SCOPE TO THE HOME EMPLOYMENT
     SECTOR IN ORDER TO ENSURE ITS DEVELOPMENT

   It is essential to include the home           But these two classifications do             Home employment is therefore
employment sector in the national           not intersect. It is therefore difficult to   calculated in a way which, for cer-
statistics, to assess its economic          grasp the home employment sector              tain countries, may be considerably
proportion at European level and to         in its diversity and as a whole.              underestimated. The case of France
specify its components, in order for                                                      is emblematic, in this respect: the
the public policies of Member States            These classifications only allow          figure available in the European sta-
to be able to rely on this sector to        to understand it partially: the specific      tistics drawn up by using the NACE
provide solutions to the day-to-day         NACE 97 category which permits to             97 category only lists 300,000
requirements of European citizens           assess the “activity of household             household employers (pensioners
and to the issues structuring the           employers of domestic workers” is             therefore), whereas out of the 3.4
debate on social aspects in Europe          often used to consider home employ-           million household employers listed
(ageing, migration, social rights,          ment, but the activities of elderly or        via the French public statistics, it
work-life balance, etc.). How many          childcare, are not included in this           is considered that at least 2 mil-
people work in this sector and what         category. For example, in France,             lion employ a person performing a
are their profiles? Who benefits from       where administrative statistics are           declared professional activity.
their work how many beneficiaries           available via the home employ-
are there? What types of activities         ment declarations, for all of the 3.4             In the European statistics, the
are performed? To what extent does          million households declaring the              sector of Personal and Household
their mobilisation lead to meet with        employment of a domestic worker,              Services (PHS) represented around

                                                                                                                                      2
future societal stakes? What are            approximately 1.2 million employ              8 million declared jobs in Europe in
the positive external aspects of this       one person to look after their young          2016, i.e. 4% of total employment. As
sector of activity, in each Member          children, and around the same to              a comparison, the hospital sector
State and at European level?                care for the 60 and more, i.e. two-           represented 4.7% of total employ-
                                            thirds of the total employees.                ment and the building sector, 6.8%.
    Currently, the existing nomencla-                                                     This figure covers direct employ-
tures used for producing European              In addition, this NACE cate-               ment, corresponding to 2.2 million
statistics only refer to a partial aspect   gory only considers the persons               jobs, and which has been seen to be
of the definition of home employ-           employing a worker at home and                poorly assessed and rather underes-
ment. The NACE (classification of           who do not have any other econo-              timated, and employment through
economic activities) permits to iden-       mic activity, in other words, mainly          service providers (associations,
tify the activities performed in the        pensioners.                                   public services, firms, etc.), identified
home, depending on whether they                                                           in the NACE 88 category.
are paid for directly by the families
or by external service providers. In
parallel, the International Standard
Classification of Occupations (ISCO)
implemented by the ILO permits to
classify employees according to the
type of occupation performed and
therefore to distinguish domestic
helpers and cleaners from care wor-
kers.
                                                          8 million declared jobs in Europe
                                                            in 2016, i.e.     4% of total employment

                                                                13
PART 2

    In this last category, there are 5.3            The low capacity of available                   The first step for the recognition
million declared jobs, but again the            European statistics to provide quality          of the home employment sector
activities considered only partially            data for considering the economic               in Europe is the demonstration, in
fall within the scope to be defined,            weight of the PHS sector and the                connection to the European insti-
as childcare without accommo -                  proportion of the home employment               tutions and decision-makers, of its
dation for example is included in               sector is related to the diversity of           economic weight. But also its social
it, along with a certain number of              models which are more or less                   and societal stakes, its prospects in
services that may be performed out-             develo ped and regulated in the                 terms of employment in particular
side of the home. On the contrary,              European countries. For example,                for less-integrated workers, and its
the activities of domestic housekee-            in Denmark, Finland, Sweden and                 role for reinforcing a social Europe,
pers are not included in it. In its “PHS        Belgium, household services are                 along with its contribution to local
Industry Monitor” [9] report, the EFSI          mainly provided by external service             development and the creation of
makes a direct link between the                 providers or independent workers                local solidarity in the territories.
lack of consideration of the sector             (self-employment model). The lar-
and its poor statistical identification,        gest number of jobs supposed to                      For the sector, the objective is also
whether on a European level or on a             fall within the direct home employ-             to assess and qualify the problems
national level in the various Member            ment sector is found in Italy, Spain            it faces such as removing jobs from
States.                                         and France and to a lesser extent in            the informal economy, professiona-
                                                Germany and Portugal.                           lization of employees and economic
                                                                                                viability of households. All of them
                                                                                                requires having precise and suffi-
                                                                                                ciently coordinated data which is not
                                                                                                presently the case.

OUR PROPOSALS
 Include the concept of “domestic worker” in the sta-                      Create a European observatory of home employment
  tistical classifications and reorient these on the basis                   sector of households to gather reliable data, specific
  of the workers’ jobs and not only on the basis of the                      to the sector, that would complete data established
  economic activity as is currently the case. One of the                     by agencies such as Eurostat and Eurofound, share
  reasons for the lack of consideration of the sector is                     and provide detailed information on the sector of
  a clear statistical difference whether on a European                       home employment and on related mechanisms. The
  level or a national level of different Member States.                      aim would also be to assess the impact of the public
                                                                             policies drawn up by the Member States to ensure
 Create an ad hoc working group in partnership with                         economic viability of the demand for household
  the national statistics organisations and Eurostat to                      services, simplify the formalities for declaring an
  revise and correct current errors.                                         employee and professionalise household jobs.

             CESU
[9] EFSI report " PHS industry monitor: statistical overview of the personal and household services sector in the European Union”,
    April 2018, http://www.efsi-europe.eu/fileadmin/MEDIA/publications/2018/PHS_Industry_monitor_April_2018.pdf
                                                                      14
RECOGNITION AND VISIBILITY OF THE HOME EMPLOYMENT
                                          SECTOR AT EUROPEAN LEVEL

2 | DECLARE DOMESTIC JOBS FOR A PUBLIC POLICY IN FAVOUR
    OF SOCIAL RIGHTS

    The declaration of household               Families fail to declare home           It leads to demonstrate the effi-
employment is an objective in itself,      employment for two main reasons:        ciency of a public policy with the
between the social and econo-              the absence of a quick and simple       incentive to declare employment: the
mic stakes of the sector. From the         system to declare the worker, and       cost of one hour of declared work
domestic workers perspective, the          the high cost of declared work, com-    is made up of the net wage paid
declaration must enable access to          pared to the average budget of the      to the employee, and of the social
all social rights: the benefit of social   families. For example, in France, the   contributions. A universal social-tax
protection in return for their contri-     total amount of social contributions    mechanism enables the employer
bution to producing wealth for the         is barely less than the net wage        family, for each hour of declared
country. From the Member States’           paid to the employee. First, domestic   work, to benefit from a set deduc-
perspective, the declaration, through      workers who are often in an inse-       tion of employer contributions, or
the social contributions paid by the       cure situation seek to increase their   to be able to deduct half of the total
families creating these jobs, is a         immediate resources; Secondly, the      amount incurred from the latter’s
source of income that contributes to       household are limited by their family   taxes.
abound a shared social protection          budget in terms of home employ-
system. This is indeed the purpose of      ment expenditure.                           In parallel, other systems may
the declaration in this sector of acti-                                            be set u p for the partial or total
vity: the high level of pooling of the          When public policies with incen-   exemption of employer contribu-
contributions collected enables the        tives are set up, they encourage the    tions, depending on the employer’s

                                                                                                                              2
financing of ambitious and univer-         transfer of the workers and jobs to     profile, his/her age, level of depen-
sal social protection policies for the     the formal economy, while barely        dency or disability, status as parent
population (pension, unemployment,         disrupting the family methods and       of a young child, etc. This universal
training, prevention, etc.).               organisations. Many families have       system makes the cost of declared
                                           the possibility of regularising the     work lower than that of undeclared
    In order to increase this income       employment situation of persons in      work. The systems targeting vulne-
in Member States where the home            whom they trust and to whom, very       rable persons or those whose needs
employment model has a potential           often, they are attached, after seve-   are recognised by society, reduce
for development, governments must          ral years of working together and,      this cost further, thus increasing their
find solutions to encourage families       sometimes in certain countries, of      employment capacities.
to declare the activity of the domes-      living together.
tic workers that they pay off the                                                      The cost for the State should be
books. In countries in which informal          In these conditions, what systems   assessed against all of the positive
methods of home employment are             permits to encourage the households     external aspects implied: home care,
substantial, the potential for deve-       to declare home employment? France      even partially subsidised, costs less
lopment of legal home employment           is an example of good practices         for the State than a place in a collec-
sector is considerable.                    deserving to be analysed, even though   tive care structure; an elderly person
                                           it cannot be reproduced as such.        who may be assisted regularly in
                                                                                   his/her home, sees a decrease in
                                                                                   his/her loss of autonomy and may
                                                                                   therefore grow older for longer in
                                                                                   his/her home; parents, in particular
                                                                                   mothers, who delegate a part of their
                                                                                   household tasks and may have their
                                                                                   children minded, are able to contri-
                                                                                   bute fully to the labour market, etc.

                                                            15
PART 2

     Alongside these social-tax sys-             Simple and quick declaration for-         But it is also an observation tool
tems for reducing the cost of                malities constitute important factors     that allows to have a better idea
declared employment, a digital tool          for encouraging the declaration of        of the working conditions of the
to easily declare the working hours          employment, especially if they com-       employees, to simulate the impact
was set up around twenty years ago:          plete a system of financial support       of the mechanisms on the States’
the CESU (employment and services            for the creation of home employ-          public finances, to analyse over time
vouchers). The concept consists in           ment, and this is their primary aim.      the efficiency of the policies car-
the family employer paying a net             This online declaration platform of       ried out and to identify the limits of
wage to his/her employee. By decla-          employment is particularly efficient      public support below which families
ring this monthly wage online (in just       as it enables the immediate transfor-     will stop declaring their household
a few clicks) on the CESU website,           mation of these monthly declaration       employees. It thus provides an awai-
it generates the automatic calcula-          deeds into comprehensive statistical      ted understanding of the activity of
tion of the social contributions after       databases on the activity of the sec-     the home employment sector, which
the universal set or targeted deduc-         tor. It also allows to provide data in    permits to consider its positive exter-
tion, and the direct debit from the          real time that may be broken down         nal factors, and to provide public
bank account of the social contribu-         per period, employee, employer and,       policies with the means to improve
tions owed by the family. The CESU           per employer category, considering        their own efficiency. The mecha-
National Agency is in charge of redis-       the specific exemptions from which        nisms of digital jobs declaration are
tributing the social contributions to        certain families benefit depending on     therefore even more efficient as
the various social welfare organi-           their profile.                            they lead not only to generate new
sations (pension, unemployment,                                                        virtuous declaration practices on an
illness, old age, training, etc). An addi-       The digital declaration platform      economic and social level, but also to
tional stage has now been passed,            is therefore a tool that encourages       provide to public policies the means
as from 2020, the online declaration         declared work.                            for their continued improvement.
will also trigger the debit of the net
wage from the employer’s account
and its payment to the employee’s
account.
                                                  “ The digital job declaration platform
                                                is an incentive tool for work declaration
                                                  but also an observational tool allowing
                                                   better understanding of general work
                                                     conditions of the employees and to
                                                      simulate the impact of declaring
                                                 mechanisms over States’public finances ”

OUR PROPOSALS
 The implementation of adapted public mechanisms                    The simplification and rapidity of the declaration for-
  enabling to encourage households to declare home                    malities through the implementation of simplified
  employment.                                                         digital platforms for encouraging the declaration,
                                                                      enabling an understanding of the sector and the
                                                                      statistical assessment of the public policies which
                                                                      accompany the sector within the Member States and
                                                                      on a European level.

                                                               16
RECOGNITION AND VISIBILITY OF THE HOME EMPLOYMENT
                                              SECTOR AT EUROPEAN LEVEL

                                          FOCUS:
                            BELGIUM AND ITS SERVICE VOUCHERS /
                                    DIENSTENCHEQUES

   Created in July 2001 and amended in December                               The registered firm also benefits from a state grant.
2003, the Service Vouchers system continues to be                          For example, in 2013, for each voucher of a value of
implemented to this day. Private individuals may pur-                      €8.50, the registered firm received €22.04, i.e. 160%
chase one hour or more of time from a household                            more than the wage paid to the worker with service vou-
worker by using a paper or electronic voucher. This                        chers.
system is limited to housework, cleaning and ironing,
sewing, preparing meals and transporting persons with                          The household workers employed by registered firms
limited mobility. The services may only be provided by                     in relation to this scheme have a written “service vou-
household workers employed by registered firms. The                        chers” employment contract with the registered firm – a
users purchase the “voucher” from the issuing agency.                      fixed-term contract for the first three months of employ-
                                                                           ment and an unlimited-term contract from the start of the
   For the work performed, the user dates and signs the                    fourth month with the same firm. They receive the basic
voucher(s) corresponding to the number of hours worked                     wages according to the scales in force and full social
and provides the voucher(s) to the operator having per-                    insurance covering accidents. The Belgian social dialogue
formed the work.                                                           mechanism guarantees that the agreements on working
                                                                           conditions and wages are negotiated every two years.
   The worker provides the vouchers to the registered
firm which sends them to the issuing organisation in
charge of refunding the value of the voucher.
                                                                               Workers falling under this scheme also have access to
                                                                           vocational training. In order to promote the quality of the
                                                                           services provided to private individuals, Belgium has set
                                                                                                                                         2
    As from 2015, a voucher costs 9 Euros per hour for the                 up social funds enabling registered firms to refund the
users for a maximum of 400 vouchers and 10 Euros per                       costs of vocational training provided to their employees.
hour for the following 100 vouchers. The persons using                     In 2011, 38% of the workers with service vouchers bene-
this system benefit from a tax deduction of between                        fited from vocational training (EFSI, 2013).
10 and 30% depending on their region of residence.
When the tax deduction is applied, the hourly cost of                         An analysis on the cost / profit of this mechanism for
the household services is reduced to €6.30 without any                     the public authorities was carried out in July 2018[10].
administrative invoice or costs. In 2013, the price of the
voucher would be very “close” to the price of undeclared
work. As indicated above, the users may only purchase
500 vouchers per year maximum, whereas special
groups, such as single-parent families and disabled per-
sons, are authorised to purchase up to 2 000 vouchers
per year at the same unit price. There are some other
administrative procedures but these are relatively simple
and the registered firms selling the services assist the
individual users through the system.

[10] Report, "Une vision à 360° sur les titres-services", IDEA Consult for Federgon, Belgium, July 2018, on federgon.be

                                                                      17
PART 2

                                                FOCUS:
                                               GERMANY
                                          AND ITS “MINI-JOBS”
                                                SYSTEM

    The German “Mini-Jobs”, voted in 2003 under                          In March 2009, 4.9 million Germans held a Mini-Job
Gerhard Schröder’s Socialist government as part of                   as their only professional activity or as a complementary
the so-called Hartz laws, were thought up in order to                activity. In March 2012, 2.3 million more Germans (7.29
encourage a return to work for populations who were                  million in whole) held a Mini-Job, including more than
far removed from the job market, such as the long-term               65% who performed no other activity in parallel with this
unemployed, students or housewives. The aim was                      Mini-Job. Mini-Jobs are extremely present in the home
to increase flexibility of the labour market, reduce the             employment sector.
non-working population and fight against unlawful or
undeclared work.                                                        Although this new method of employment with
                                                                     “moderate wage” has enabled a decrease in undeclared
    A Mini-Job may not be paid more than 450 Euros                   work and a decrease in unemployment, the main criti-
(net) per month to the worker. Initially, it could not exceed        cism made of it is that it creates jobs that lead to an
a period of three months, but this criterion has since               increase in poverty and increased insecurity of the wor-
been withdrawn. The added value of the contract is its               kers. The social benefits remain much lower than for
“win-win” nature: the worker, exempt from employee                   standard jobs and lead to maintaining a sort of base of
contributions, benefits from a guaranteed minimum                    unqualified and marginalised workers, somewhat pro-
wage and a minimum base of social benefits through the               moting work of low quality and legitimising insecure and
declaration of his/her activity. The employer, responsible           under-acknowledged jobs.
for all contributions, receives benefits such as the exemp-
tion of certain costs, such as VAT, or the decrease of
certain other contributions.

                                                                18
RECOGNITION AND VISIBILITY OF THE HOME EMPLOYMENT
                                               SECTOR AT EUROPEAN LEVEL

                                             FOCUS:
                                THE FRENCH CESU, HOW TO DEVELOP
                                   NEW SERVICES TO MEET WITH
                                     EVOLUTIONS IN SOCIETY?

    The CESU is an offer to simplify the formalities pro-                      Since its first online service in 2003, the use of the
posed by the Urssaf[11]. It enables a private employer to                   CESU website has developed and now has more than
declare the wage of a home worker, easily, for services                     20 million visits per year. The CESU must now meet with
to individuals. The CESU covers all private individuals                     new ambitions.
at various stages of their life, to improve day-to-day
life, to take on a few hours of cleaning or to accom-                           The CESU, committed to the development of inno-
pany an elderly or disabled person. For the employee,                       vative services, works with start-up firms in the sector
it guarantees rights to health insurance, unemployment                      of home employment, offering services to put private

                                                                                                                                                    2
benefits, pension, etc.                                                     employers in contact with home workers. The aim is to
                                                                            enable the users booking and paying their employees
    The CESU is much more than a tool for collecting                        online to declare the services automatically at the same
social contributions: it meets with the day-to-day needs of                 time and thus to experience a simple and efficient proce-
millions of French people and supports the development                      dure.
of employment in the sector of services to individuals.
By accompanying the needs of elderly or disabled
persons for care at home, by contributing to a better
work-life balance and by guaranteeing social coverage
for household workers, it conveys the values of solidarity
and emancipation of the Social Security scheme.

[11] About Urssaf:
     Accompanying employers and business owners as part of a simple and personalised service relationship for ensuring the collection of
     the contributions with efficiency and equity, as efficient social contributions collector: these are the major stakes of the Urssaf offices.
     Its assignment within the Social Security system: finance the French social model, with almost 500 billion Euros collected from 9.4 mil-
     lion contributors. Its social assignment: guarantee social welfare for the workers (health insurance, pension, family benefits) related to
     performing a job in a legal context. Its economic assignment: facilitate the formalities for employers and guarantee the respect of social
     rules that are essential for fair competition

                                                                       19
PART 2

                                    FOCUS:
                               THE FRENCH CESU,
                           IN FIGURES (2017 TOTALS)

                   19 million
           More than                                    1 921 935
              declarations                              employer
       (of which 73.4% declared online)                   users

                An average of                            2,078 billion
         600 615 employees                         Euros of contributions
           declared monthly                               collected

CESU

                                            20
RECOGNITION AND VISIBILITY OF THE HOME EMPLOYMENT
                                         SECTOR AT EUROPEAN LEVEL

3 | WHICH STATUS WITHIN THE EUROPEAN
    PUBLIC POLICIES?

    The development of this new                                                      T h e r e i s n o u n i q u e p a t h . In
activity sector requires a good iden-                                            France, the social dialogue came
tification of its economic members:                                              about before the recognition of the
the employers are families and not                                               status of private employer in the law.
firms, the workers often have few                                                This social dialogue has existed for
qualifications and may be in more                                                almost 20 years, whereas the status
or less unstable situations. Moreover,                                           of households employing workers in
the employment relationship does                                                 their home has only been recognised
not pursue any profit-making pur-                                                in the French Employment Code
pose, and the work is performed in a                                             since 2016, at the same time as their
private home which is, by definition,                                            economic role. The absence of reco-
inviolable. Rights adapted to these                                              gnition of the status of the household
specific characteristics must there-                                             employers and the employees that
fore be stipulated.                                                              they employ, and the uniqueness
                                                   CESU                          of the employment relationship
    The economic sector represents           In France, the social dialogue      between them, has led to complica-
millions of jobs with social value at    exists and has enabled the develop-     ting the translation of the progress
European level. The societal stakes      ment of the sector and its members      negotiated, in the texts and in the
involved in it are decisive for the      and the signature of many agree-        facts. An exceptional employment

                                                                                                                                  2
future and its development potential     ments creating new rights. In Spain,    law for the sector of home employ-
is very high. How can it be orga-        on the contrary, the members            ment has been drawn up alongside
nised and recognised? One of the         struggle to come out from the under-    common law, stage by stage, so
responses lies in the development        ground economy and the former           that the workers social rights are not
of a social dialogue adapted to the      methods of domesticity, in particular   reduced compared to the other. This
uniqueness and components of the         due to the fact that the trade unions   also ensures that the families benefit
sector, at national or European level.   defending the rights of domestic        from less restrictive rules than firms,
                                         workers do not have any represen-       while respecting the private nature of
                                         tative from the families employing      their home.
                                         them with whom they may discuss,
                                         negotiate and build up a framework
                                         for this special economic sector.

   OUR PROPOSAL
    If a European public policy endeavours to organise
     the home employment sector, the recognition of the
     status of the household employers and of the domes-
     tic worker at European level will be a prerequisite. It
     may also contribute to driving this trend in Member
     States, by encouraging them to recognise the speci-
     fic nature of the economic members in question in
     their respective legislations, and to ensuring the reco-
     gnition and emergence of the activity sector in itself,
     prior to its assistance and its development.

                                                          21
PART 3

A NECESSARY
IMPROVEMENT
OF WORKING CONDITIONS
FOR DOMESTIC WORKERS
AT EUROPEAN LEVEL

      Ensure the development of an organised
     social dialogue, secure working conditions
  and professionalization is a key to enhance social
       rights for domestic workers in Europe.

                           22
A NECESSARY IMPROVEMENT OF WORKING CONDITIONS FOR
                                        DOMESTIC WORKERS AT EUROPEAN LEVEL

    One of the major concerns of the           social rights than workers in other                In addition, the transfer of many
European Pillar of Social Rights is the        activity sectors. For example, in               undeclared jobs to the formal eco-
access for all workers, regardless of          Spain, domestic workers employed                nomy and the integration of current
their activity sector, to decent condi-        and declared by the families may                and future migrant populations are
tions of work and employment. The              be dismissed, quite legally, wit-               a way to develop the sector. Employ-
home employment sector is particu-                                                             ment opportunity and enhancing
                                               hout notice and without receiving
larly affected by these stakes.                                                                social rights for workers is crucial.
                                               unemployment benefits. The social
    In some Member States, domestic            organisation re presenting them
workers, including those performing            (CCOO Construccion y servicios) is
their work in a legal framework,               currently campaigning to bring their
still benefit from less protective             social rights in line with common law.

1|E
   NSURE THE DEVELOPMENT OF A SOCIAL DIALOGUE
  AT EUROPEAN LEVEL AND IN THE MEMBER STATES
  FOR AN EFFICIENT SOCIAL PROTECTION
  OF DOMESTIC WORKERS

Structure trade
unions of workers
                                               sphere and is therefore placed out
                                               of the scope of legislation of the
                                                                                               sector often find it difficult to orga-
                                                                                               nise themselves as social partners at
                                                                                                                                                   3
and employers                                  States[12]), and respecting the specific        national level and to undertake col-
                                               stakes of this sector in terms of secu-         lective actions.
                                               rity and risk prevention at work. A
    In order to reinforce the quality                                                              Few European countries have
                                               social dialogue will help raise awar-
of the working and employment                                                                  trade unions and employer organi-
                                               eness for employers and workers on
conditions of workers of the sec-                                                              sations for negotiating, discussing
                                               the specific rights and obligations
tor, the first identified lever is the                                                         and implementing a legal framework
                                               linked to the contractual working
implementation of conditions that                                                              adapted to the home employment
                                               relationship.
encourage the development of a                                                                 sector. In Spain, there are no repre-
social dialogue between represen-                  The development of a negotiated             sentatives of household employers.
tatives of workers and of household            framework in relation to collec-                T h e r e p r e s e n t a t i o n o f wo r ke r s
employers. Exchanges and negotia-              tive agreements or arrangements                 hired directly by the households is
tions between the parties involved             is a priority for ensuring the secu-            encompassed in the general repre-
must enable the creation of the legal          rity of the employment relationship             sentation of household workers,
context for performing these jobs              between the two parties.                        whether they are employed by a
and adapted organisation methods                                                               family or by a service provider orga-
of the sector in each Member State.                The development of strong repre-            nisation, with some shared stakes
The main components are respec-                sentative organisations, both for               but with very different solutions to
ting the specific characteristics of the       the workers and for the employers,              be implemented. The dialogue can-
employers (families employing a per-           is also an essential condition of the           not therefore be implemented, due to
son without pursuing a profit-making           social dialogue. However, the pri-              lack of negotiators. .
objective), respecting the workplace           vate household employers and the
(a home which falls within a private           workers of the home employment

[12] For example, in France, the private home is inviolable in accordance with the French Penal Code. Consequently,
     a labour inspector may not enter it.

                                                                     23
PART 3

    In Italy, the Federazione ita-                Their role with the public autho-             The social dialogue must also
liana dei datori di lavoro domestico          rities is essential, and must enable          take shape at European level, in
(FIDALDO[13]) contribute to the social        the implementation of policies sup-           order to ensure the recognition of
dialogue at national level for the            porting declared jobs in the sector,          the sector and to define its specific
household employers. In France, the           leading to the funding of social pro-         characteristics and its stakes. The
sector-based social dialogue is very          tection. Finally, household employers         recognition at European level of
organised and has enabled consi-              are assisted in understanding and             the status of household employer
derable progress for the working              gaining awareness of the responsi-            and of workers directly employed
conditions of the sector’s employees.         bilities involved in the status of            by a household may constitute a
                                              household employer, in particular             relevant and efficient base for the
    The organisation of a sec-                in terms of risk prevention at work.          development of the future European
tor-based social dialogue would               By making their homes safe and by             social dialogue. It may also facilitate
enable the European social partners           encouraging the professionalization           its emergence within the Member
to observe good practices at national         of their employees, the household             States. Europe must give the neces-
level and to contribute to spreading          employers become real econo-                  sary drive to enable the civil society
these good practices at European              mic actors of a sector which builds           to get organised and to create a
level. This would be an encouraging           up its quality at the same time as            virtuous ecosystem offering social
factor for countries in which there is        it implements the conditions of its           rights to domestic workers paid by
not yet any conventional base[14]. The        attractiveness. This means that, in the       the families. This will also ensure the
conditions of a committed sector-             future, the workers that they employ          decline of undeclared work that is
based social dialogue must be pre-            will be able to meet with their expec-        predominant in Europe in this sector.
pared to enable access to social              tations in a secure context.
rights, the professionalization of the                                                          EFFE must become the European
employees and a sector-based Euro-                It is the role of the European insti-     organisation of the sector on which
pean observatory.                             tutions to encourage Member States            the European institutions may rely
                                              to organise an adapted sector-based           on for the creation of a first dialogue
    In the few countries in which the         social dialogue.                              process and the proposal of shared
social dialogue is organised, most of                                                       orientations. Indeed, EFFE currently
the employees and the household                                                             constitutes a centre of representa-
employers are however unaware                                                               tives of household employers from
that they are represented and are                                                           many Member States, committed, in
unaware of a part of their rights and                                                       varying stages, to the organisation of
obligations. The social partners must                                                       the home employment sector in their
endeavour to develop their visibility                                                       respective countries, and also asso-
and put their communication to the                                                          ciates workers representations.
service of real development of the
sector’s social protection, by infor-
ming workers of their rights and
helping them to assert them.

                                   “ Recognizing at EU level both legal statuses
                                  of household employer and domestic worker
                               shall efficiently and adequately push the emergence
                                          of a social dialogue forward ”

[13] FIDALDO brings together the following structures: Assindatcolf, Nuova Collaborazione, ADLC, ADLD, and DONIMA
[14] Cf. White Paper of November 2013 ordered by FGTAFO entitled “Employees of private employers: implementation of social dialogue
     tools on a European level"

                                                                   24
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